Thursday reader's view: Midland biking lesson learned

By the Midland Daily News

Published 7:00 am, Thursday, May 23, 2013

To the editor:

I always learn my lessons the hard way. Such was the case as I was riding my bike down Rodd Street this past January and attempted to make a left turn onto William Street. I extended my left arm signaling the turn and as far as I was concerned, that driver on William Street saw me and I expected her to wait for me to complete my turn onto William Street before she turned onto Rodd.

She didn’t. She accelerated and collided into me, sending me airborne and crashing into her windshield. My bike was totaled. Luckily for me I was wearing a helmet. This prevented much of the damage which could have occurred. I was unconscious for five to ten minutes before the fire department personnel were able to wake me and then attempt to walk with me. I signed a waiver releasing them from responsibility for not taking me to the hospital but I needed to get home for my daughter.

With ice, the bruise went down over the next few days. X-rays confirmed I had no broken bones and for a few days I figured I was in the right. Wrong again. I’m on the Bike-Walk Midland committee, the sub-committee formed to make recommendations to the city’s Planning Commission about the transformation of the city’s roads into a non-motorized transportation friendly city, safe for everyone and maybe I should have known better.

When I brought up my accident at our next meeting, Kerry Irons informed me that the way I had approached the turn was incorrect and I would have been considered a flying object to the driver. A correct way would be for the rider to check for traffic and to extend his/her left arm much earlier than I did at the turn. Then the rider is to move physically over to the left-most lane. This same technique is used whether the bike lane is on the right side of a three lane street (Ashman/Rodd) or whether there is a left turn lane at an intersection, or simply to make a turn in the middle of a block.

As Midland continues to promote non-vehicular transportation, incidents like these surely will arise. At the Family Fitness Day at Midland Mall later in February, I manned the committee’s table with Josh Stevens, another avid cyclist, who told me of his very similar accident at the same comer. The difference was that he had acted correctly and moved over to the left lane prior to making his turn. The driver did not yield and hit him.

A few good things came out of this situation. Fire Station 1, who had answered the 911 call that afternoon, gifted me with a new bike. My total gratefulness goes to the designers of helmets and my ability to walk away from the injury ... I’m still fighting against the head injury effects of my younger days some 38 years later, so please listen to what I say about the helmet. Without it, the damage could have been much worse. Finally, no excuses can be found to divert the biker’s attention from the task at hand. Bikers are new to the driver’s landscape, or at least it seems that way. They need to know their safety will not be compromised by an inattentive driver or by their own inattention.